U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman Schultz had hoped to generate attention Tuesday for one of their top policy priorities: health care. Instead, they were trumped and found themselves responding to explosive news emanating from the White House.

The South Florida lawmakers made some news of their own — but not on the subject they planned to focus on as they prepared to return to Washington, D.C., after 11 days in their districts.

Deutch, a Democrat who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, said he and other members of the Judiciary Committee would introduce legislation later this week to revive the expired law establishing a mechanism for appointment of an independent counsel, often called a special prosecutor.

Such a position is needed, he said, so someone independent of President Donald Trump can run the investigation — without fear of getting fired — into any involvement his campaign may have had with Russian attempts to influence the presidential election.

He also wants the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, the acting FBI director and former FBI director James Comey summoned before the Judiciary Committee to explain the circumstances behind Trump’s firing of Comey.

Wasserman Schultz, who represents parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties, said the president can no longer be trusted with highly classified information. Her call was prompted by the disclosure that Trump provided highly sensitive information about threats from ISIS to Russian diplomats who visited him in the Oval Office.

Wasserman Schultz, a former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, has often used strong language to express her disapproval of Trump, but she was particularly pointed Tuesday, saying he “repeatedly lies and has no compunction about repeatedly lying.” She said Trump has shown a “lack of self control,” “insecurity” and an “ever-increasing need to prove that he is a legitimately elected president.”

Wasserman Schultz said constituents repeatedly asked her in recent days what’s going on with the president and what’s going to happen. “President Trump is causing people to lose sleep. They are anxious and concerned. He is making them feel panicked, and like their safety and security is in jeopardy. And it’s the opposite of what a president should be doing,” she said.

She declined to go as far as U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat who represents part of southern Broward, who said in a statement Tuesday about the disclosure of sensitive information to the Russians that “the president is desperate for attention and needs psychological help.”

Wasserman Schultz said she didn’t have the medical expertise to opine on any need for help, but said “the president clearly has issues.”

Michael Barnett, chairman of the Palm Beach Republican Party and vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said later that people need to consider the source of the Trump criticisms.

“They can manufacture a pattern out of thin air in order to advance their narrative that Donald Trump is not a legitimate president, but we stand by him,” Barnett said. “We’ll defend him because we think he’s doing the job that he’s promised to do. It’s a shame that these criticisms have to happen, but that’s the nature of politics.”

The Democrats are getting attention by responding to Trump, but it’s not on the subjects they want to talk about. On Tuesday, Wasserman Schultz and Deutch hoped to generate support to continue the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and sound the alarm about the Republican plan to repeal it, the American Health Care Act, also known as Trumpcare.

They arranged space at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation offices in Fort Lauderdale. They brought in Dr. Aaron Elkin, a former president of the Broward County Medical Association who practices obstetrics and gynecology in Hollywood, to extol the benefits of Obamacare.

They invited two patients to appear at their news conference, including Robert Loukota of Fort Lauderdale, who has HIV and a genetic blood clotting disorder. “I’m terrified that I might lose my coverage, which has been a blessing,” he said.

Lauri Tillman, of Coconut Creek, said her grandson spent 145 days in a hospital neonatal unit, racked up more than $1 million of medical bills in his fist four months, and is now topping $3 million of medical bills before turning age 3.

Before the Affordable Care Act, those costs would run up against the lifetime caps on benefits from employer-provided health insurance, she said. She fears what would happen under the American Healthcare Act.

“When the Republicans and President Trump decided to throw a party in the [White House] Rose garden after they passed this cruel and immoral bill, I just wanted to throw up,” she said. “I was horrified and my family was horrified.”

Despite those stories, the latest news from Washington about Trump’s handling of the classified information dominated the South Florida health care event. It’s not the first time.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-West Delray, was the headliner at a forum on the effect of climate change on the African-American, Caribbean-American and Hispanic communities in South Florida. One television crew showed up and, Hastings said, the only thing he was asked about was Trump’s firing of Comey.

Last month, when Wasserman Schultz organized an event to sound the alarm about human trafficking that can end with teens in sexual slavery, she was surrounded by reporters who wanted to know about the week’s news from Washington: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s inaccurate assertion that Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons against his own people during World War II and his reference to Nazi death camps as “Holocaust centers.”

Wasserman Schultz said the constant stream of Trump-related controversies poses a challenge for political leaders who hope to get public attention on other issues, such as health care.

But, Deutch said, even though “there is only so much time that can be spent on these programs and in the media talking about issues, that doesn’t mean that our constituents aren’t complaining and expressing their concern and fear.”